Here's writing at you, Michel Aoun
After
watching how easily an open letter penned by my colleague Issa Goraieb in
L'Orient-Le Jour could elicit a response from a harried Emile Lahoud, I thought
I'd try my luck with you, Michel Aoun. General, can you see me? I'm over here,
lower than Rabieh, but still high enough to confirm that you're not yet at
Baabda, where I know you're dying to relocate.
In
hearing you on Marcel Ghanem's show last week, I realized that you had slashed
your price for securing the presidency. You are now actively peddling a lie
about the death of Rafik Hariri, pointing out that since a year of
investigations had not reached a conclusion as to the perpetrators, we must now
accept that the Syrian regime might not have been responsible. Perhaps "fundamentalists"
were behind the crime, you speculated.
Your
math was typically off, since the investigation only began last summer, and you
disregarded that three United Nations reports mentioned Syrian involvement. No
falsehood was, evidently, too odious once you heard that Syria's conditions for
supporting a new president (a condition transmitted to the Qataris) were that
he or she not be hostile to Damascus, and not implicate senior Syrians in
Hariri's death. If I had to wager, that one phrase all but sank your chances of
being elected. No one in the majority will back someone so transparently
willing to bury the truth about Hariri.
Tell
me, is it true that last week you notified those gathered in the national
dialogue conference that unless you were elected president you would consider
Parliament illegal? True or not, such a threat would be in character. It's
precisely what you did at the time of Taif, when you dispatched
parliamentarians to Saudi Arabia and then declared them outcasts once they
signed an accord you found unsatisfactory. Now you're trying to use your many
strikingly decent supporters (whom you are destined to once more disappoint) to
heave yourself into the presidency.
You're
probably the most dominant Christian politician today. That's the price we must
pay for 15 years of the community's marginalization. Christians want a tough
guy, and think you're him. But when you affirm your popularity, when you ask
that a referendum be organized to prove this, are you serious? Do you really
want Lebanon to be run by referendums and opinion polls? Has it not occurred to
you that the political structure of this country was designed to avoid the
dangers of majoritarianism and their impact on sectarian relations? Applying
your logic, if a majority were one day to insist that a President Aoun had to
step down before the end of his term because he had lost public confidence,
would you oblige?
You
wouldn't, and you would be justified in doing so. The final word is the
Constitution. But I suspect you'll just ignore how Taif weakened the
presidency. You dream of becoming a super-president who could use his ties with
the army and the security services to impose his will - much like Lahoud, in
fact worse (matching the preferred presidential profile drawn up by Hassan
Nasrallah at the dialogue conference). You would buttress this by relying on
your reinvigorated co-religionists, but also on Hizbullah and the Shiites. Taif
is an abstraction to you, a thin membrane standing between you and what you
imagine to be your historical right to lead the country - which you tried to
enact, so catastrophically, between 1988 and 1990. And in resurrecting a strong
Maronite presidency you will bring your community into conflict with all the
others, as you did back then.
Speaking
of history, allow a mild protest. With all your talk of referendums and the
like, you do fancy yourself a new Charles de Gaulle, don't you? Actually, your
leniency toward the Syrians shows you to be an aspiring Petain. The Syrians
wreak havoc, and you faithfully repeat that they have left Lebanon, knowing
full well that they retain substantial sway over key sectors of the state. The
thing is this: You want to inherit what they set up to turn against your
adversaries. If anyone approximated de Gaulle during these past years, by the
way, it was Sfeir, and you now realize how little he wants you. He didn't
defend Taif against you almost two decades ago, he didn't risk his life all
these years under Syria's protectorate, he didn't patiently reconstitute the
Maronite community after your megalomania had shattered it; he didn't do all
this, and more, to offer you a green light to Baabda, you who were most
responsible for his travails.
I
heard that you tried to get a one-on-one meeting with Pope Benedict XVI last
December. You reportedly were looking for ecclesiastical icing on your
presidential cake, but the Vatican didn't oblige. You spent a week in Rome
vainly awaiting an audience, then returned to present tardy condolences to the
Tueni family for Gebran's assassination. The church has a long memory. It
remembered what you did to Sfeir, and to the Maronites.
General,
the most difficult thing to swallow is your about-face on Syria. We always knew
Rafik Hariri's memory abraded your ego, and that you look on his son as your
main challenger for national authority. You're also vindictive, and to prove it
you recently described the March 14 coalition as "the October 13"
coalition - the date of your 1990 getaway from Baabda. (By the way, didn't
Suleiman Franjieh, Michel Murr, Talal Arslan and many of your new comrades
celebrate on that day?) Even as you sneer at March 14, you forget who
implemented your expulsion, and whose warplanes bombed you right into the
French Embassy. The Syrian regime may be innocent of Hariri's death, you say,
but during the exile in France you, and more outstandingly your followers at
home, knew the absolute control it exerted over all matters Lebanese. Why the
sudden amnesia?
Is
the presidency worth your embracing a counterfeit version of history? Isn't
your willingness to be deceitful on Syria a sign that you're a man of no
principles, a demagogue who will play the mob only to reach the top? Do you
think the Syrians will let you live if you defy them? Ask Elias Murr. They
aren't worth your refusal to say or do a spontaneously compassionate thing
after the murders of Samir Kassir, George Hawi, and Gebran Tueni; not to
mention after the remains of a dozen or so soldiers - soldiers who died
fighting for you - were found buried in Yarzeh months ago. Did they not deserve
better from the Free Patriotic Movement? Or did avoiding embarrassing Syria and
Emile Lahoud weigh too heavily on your calculating mind?
So
general, you again hold Lebanon hostage. You want to become president, and,
like the first time around, you have no qualms about imposing yourself on an
unwilling system. You don't want to push Lahoud too hard because you fear a
hasty departure might allow the parliamentary majority to bring in someone
other than you; but you don't want to push too softly either, because if Lahoud
loiters for another year and a half your chances of succeeding him may
diminish.
The
system cannot take more instability, and be assured that if you come to power
against the better judgment of the parliamentary majority and the patriarch,
volatility is a dead certainty. I recognize that Christians like you, but our
system is not a popularity contest; we need a president who can unite the
Lebanese, and you're not that person. You've repeatedly proven this since your
return last year. Even on the one thing that has brought most Lebanese together
- condemnation of Syria's role in the Hariri assassination - you've displayed
disquieting divisiveness, in fact selfish frivolity.
That's
why you should accept a new president who is consensual - why not someone with
whom you are comfortable? The patriarch won't endorse you, but he also doesn't
relish backing someone against you. Afterward, you can examine ways of influencing
a new administration. It may not be what you've been preparing for, but the
power of modesty is absolute. And since your eyes widen whenever you hear the
words "absolute" and "power" mentioned together, I throw
this out as a modest proposal.
Michael
Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR.
Copyright (c) 2006 The Daily Star
"Mona Haddad" <mh04@aub.edu.lb>
Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:03:56 +0300
Dear Mr. Young,
Why don't you go back to your country and give your
opinion about yourpoliticians. I know
that you all ( The West) do not want a strong president because he will not be
a puppet in your hands and let you play around with our country the way you
have been doing for the past 30 years. Anyway,
mydear Mr. Young I hope you yourself will
refresh your memory and remember that back in 1988 and on it was the US
who gave her blessings to Syria to do what she did in Lebanon and that all the
West were all well aware of whatever was going on in Lebanon. Please pack your bags and leave us you Journalists!!!!
who were and are still blinded by your prejudice governments!!.
WHATEVER WE DO IN OUR COUNTRY AND WHO EVER WE CHOOSE
AS OUR PRESIDENT IS NON OF YOUR BUSINESS AND YES WE ALL LOVE GENERAL MICHEL
AOUN BECAUSE HE IS THE ONLY ONE TO STOP PEOPLE LIKE YOU THAT PLAY A VERY
SUSPICIOUS ROLE IN OUR COUNTRY.
"fares murr" <madprom@idm.net.lb
Wed, 15 Mar 2006 08:31:58 +0200
Obviously your are what you hear, but we are what we
stand for. General Aoun's first and foremost dream is the Lebanese Republic,
not the Lebanese presidency.
General Aoun, as HISTORY proved has more vision &
political integrity than all politicians piled up together.
From 1988 he found the courage to tell the Syrians:
your are my enemy until you are in Syria, from there on, you are my neighbor.
And to all forgetting minds, G. Aoun REFUSED the
presidency (As Hrawi himself admitted) when it meant that he should sign his
submitting to Syria.
Who are ALL OF YOU to question G. Aoun's integrity.
Were you exiled? Were you beaten for 15 years? Were you accused of treason when
you accused Syria of swallowing Lebanon?
General Aoun tolerated all above to give us a new way
to practice politics and citizenship in its highest & most noble form.
So if you want to pick on somebody, at least know that
HISTORY will punch you in the face when you try to counterfeit true historic
and patriotic milestones
that have been paved with blood and sweat of General
Aoun and the brave Lebanese Army, then the FPM.
Mr. Young, try to pick on somebody else for kick.
General Aoun is WAY OUT OFYOUR LEAGUE, as you have so honestly admitted in the
opening of your enlightening letter.
Fares Murr
Date: Tue, 14 Mar
2006 12:18:24 EST
Liban
Cher monsieur
Je suis une personne
tout à fait capable de dialoguer "politiquement" avec des gens qui
ont des opinions différentes de la mienne ; la seule chose que je ne peux
accepter et qui me sort de mon calme c'est la collaboration avec l'ennemi ;
c'est la trahison de la mémoire des milliers et milliers de Libanais enfants,
soldats, femmes, hommes etc..qui sont morts, de toutes les confessions et
de tous les bords pour défendre le
pays, c'est la trahison de l'intérêt de
mon pays; c'est le comportement cynique qui veut par tous les moyens divisés
les Libanais, jouer sur la multitude des confessions pour faire le jeu de
l'ennemi.
- Ma conviction est
que l'ennemi du Liban et des Libanais , c'est le gouvernement criminel de la
famille Assad qui a massacré depuis plus de 30 ans des milliers et des milliers
de Libanais et qui continue à le faire. Tout le monde (lisez les rapports des
nations unis , des américains, des Français, du gouvernement Libanais ou tout
simplement appelez vos parents au Liban) sait que leurs services secrets et
leurs agents sont toujours au Liban, et jour et nuit oeuvrent pour destabiliser
le pays, qu'ils envoient des armes àleurs alliés et surtout à Hezballah ; tout
le monde sauf des gens comme Lahoud, Aoun, Skaff,
Hezballah,Frangieh,kARAME etc..
- Notre cher général
parle de"relations amicales " avec les Syriens;il est même allé
jusqu'à dire "les Syriens sont maintenant partis, pourquoi vous voulez les
poursuivre jusqu'en Syrie"; mais
tout le monde est d'accord pour des relations amicales avec le peuple Syrien;
par contre le président syrien et sa clique qui continuent leurs efforts de
destabilisation du Liban et leurs actions criminelles au Liban, ça les Libanais
et les vrais doivent le dénoncer; choses que ne font pas du tout Aoun et skaff
(et bien sûr je ne cite même pas leurs agents comme Lahoud, ferzli, Hezballah,
Assem Kanso etc;;et ça c'est traître et criminel
Vous ne pouvez pas
être du côté de ceux qui ont massacré lâchement Jounblat, Hassan khaled, Salim
Al louzi , Bachir Gemayel, Hariri, Kassir, Toueini etc.. des femmen enceintes ,
des dizaines de milliers de Libanais et être qualifié de patriote
Ce qui est important
ce n'est pas ce qu'était le général Aoun; mais ce qu'il est devenu maintenant .
Et croyez moi si Aoun
avait appuyé les efforts des forces du 14 Mars , la situation du Liban aurait
été largement différente; Hezballah et les chiites auraient été mis en minorité
et la pression sur eux aurait été suffisante pour leur faire renoncer à leurs
actions destabilisatrices et criminelles. Au lieu de ça , Aoun a divisé les
chrétiens , renforcé Hezballah et les alliés des Syriens et faits tout pour
maintenir au pouvoir un président criminel , agent des syriens, dont le fils
apparait avec pièces à l'appui, comme volant des millions et des millions, dans
les scandales de Al Madina, Cellulaires, Casino du Liban etcc..
stellakovacik@sbcglobal.
Date: Tue, 14 Mar
2006 13:50:57 -0500
hehe , you are
chicken first to put your real name , second if u r below michel aoun that
means that u are going to be below him.... where u belong , then what egg
brought u to life , and u dare to speak about general aoun like that , u r so
ignorant , and your words are not credible at all ,, even though ur some sort
of editor at daily star where nobody read anything about u , but i meant to say
here that michel aoun is not looking for presidency like u all think ... he is
looking for a better democratic lebanon that we all dream of , i dont think u
do , because u r such a hill billie and u dont deserve it ,,,, too bad ,
lebanon after 30 years didnt change the mentality of people like u , must be the
damn syrians that made u the way u are today , u know what i wish ,i wish that
hariri ,was alive for one reason , to still your money with syria and .. ,
people like u dont deserve lebanon , u should be exiled , we dont need u in lebanon , follow syria .....
stellakovacik@sbcglobal.net
Date: Tue, 14 Mar
2006 13:55:03 -0500
all that stufff that
we read here ,is brainwashing against michel aoun , u dont need him a president
cause he is going to show to the world what that miserable hariri stole from
lebanon with syria , and he is going to show what junblatt stole and killed and
is going to show how any people jeageaa killed ,, u guys dont wont the truth
and dont deserve me , burry yourself with lies from the past , cause u dont
deserve a person like michel aoun , what a shameeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ,
shame on u for saying u r are lebanese , traitors....